Crain's Cleveland Business: By SCOTT SUTTELL
Home prices nationwide fell at a record pace in the fourth quarter of 2008, though prices in the Cleveland market declined at a considerably smaller rate than other markets, according to a widely watched industry report released today.
The S&P Case-Shiller National Home Price Index reported that prices sank a record 18.2% during the last three months of 2008 compared with the like period of 2007. Its index of 20 major metropolitan areas fell 18.5%, also a record.
All 20 metro areas in the S&P Case-Shiller 20-city index recorded declines. Eight of those markets saw prices fall by more than 20%.
By contrast, prices in the Cleveland-Mentor-Elyria market fell just 6.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the like quarter in 2007. Only Denver, which saw prices fall 4%, and Dallas, where prices were off 4.3%, experienced smaller rates of decline than the Cleveland market.